Kukla's Korner Hockey

The Canucks seem to have an excess of solid wingers which leaves them the envy of many squads in the NHL but after Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler, who showed again last night he's still a formidable player even while trying to comeback from a series of injuries, there isn't a lot in the way of offensive thrust in the middle throughout the rest of the organization.

The excess of wingers mentioned above brings you to the Zack Kassian problem. As it stands at this point, he's simply not playing enough unless you consider 6:52 on the fourth line sufficient for a guy who was tied for the club lead in goals until last weekend. While he was a star on the top line with the Sedin twins and has looked promising at times alongside Ryan Kesler, he was minus-2 last night in the few moments he played with Lapierre and Dale Weise leaving you wondering what kind of player they expect him to be.

If they want a Milan Lucic, don't play him like Guillaume Desbiens. He's big, he can skate and handle the puck, pass and handle the heavy going yet the team seems to prefer the struggling David Booth or steadier but more predictable Jannik Hansen in the offensive situations. But the great Dane's always invaluable contributions to this team have almost always come from his gritty work on the third line, not playing alongside Henrik and Kesler.